'Ran' | Critics' Picks | The New York Times

A.O. Scott investigates themes of dissolution in Akira Kurosawa's 1985 masterpiece: how things initially fall apart, and how they sometimes just keep getting worse.
Related article: tinyurl.com/d3wrm8
Subscribe to the Times Video newsletter for free and get a handpicked selection of the best videos from The New York Times every week: bit.ly/timesvideonewsletter
Subscribe on KZbin: bit.ly/U8Ys7n
Watch more videos at: nytimes.com/video
---------------------------------------------------------------
Want more from The New York Times?
Twitter: / nytvideo
Facebook: / nytimes
Google+: plus.google.com/+nytimes/
Whether it's reporting on conflicts abroad and political divisions at home, or covering the latest style trends and scientific developments, New York Times video journalists provide a revealing and unforgettable view of the world. It's all the news that's fit to watch. On KZbin.
'Ran' | Critics' Picks | The New York Times
/ thenewyorktimes

[@geesealyse]

That ending shot is like a punch to the gut. I watched this film while writing my honors thesis on King Lear in college and I have never been able to get that scene out of my head.

[@SteveSilverActor]

Alyse Johnston I agree -- one of the most powerful closing scenes in all of cinema in one of the finest anti-war films of all time.

[@georgemorley1029]

You said it.

[@seukfuhi]

Same here. Watched this film when I was 17, and that final shot haunted me, and still haunts me at 41. There's something about it that is deep, beautiful and frightening.

[@romangeneralbob]

This is one of the hardest hitting films there is. Definitely one of the greatest films ever made.

[@maoristereo]

When they were on horseback laughing and finally bonding as father and son... and we hear the gunshot. The feels....

[@TheFullmetalj]

Exactly. That scene alone hurt me so much.

[@lwkot6568]

i literally screamed out loud like "WTF ? NANIIII??"

[@bobsbigboy_]

Cringe

[@BlackAdder6]

That final scene is the first time a movie made me cry.

[@NTDev88]

This is a true masterpiece that any real movie lover will enjoy. You can tell Kurosawa poured his heart & soul into this.

[@lostinrubacava]

Ran is simply brilliant. The gunshot at a certain point everyone who's seen it will remember brought a gasp of shock from the entire audience I watched it with years ago and I'll never forget the squeak of silk that meant Lady Kaede was coming, a woman who puts Lady Macbeth in the shade. Kurosawa knew how to capture you with sound as well as sight. IMO, his really great achivement was The Seven Samurai but Ran is an amazing movie and a true classic.

[@nathanielmesekale583]

Man does this movie give me chills... especially that screeching flute at the finale... ever since I first saw it that flute makes icicles run down my spine... What a beautiful and haunting movie.

[@pastre999]

I have seen this film many times and it doesn’t cease to astonish . A brilliant , breathtaking masterpiece from the master himself at the heights of his power . Unforgettable

[@712dal]

I feel like this was one of the greatest movies I ever saw....every five years or so I re-watch it and it is still very fresh and just plain stunningly beautiful

[@Gguy061]

Takemitsu's score is so incredible...captures the mood of the film perfectly. Dat oboe...perfect

[@qwj68boots]

He, like The Emperor & Greatness itself Mifune are sorely Missed.

[@obermegalutschoar]

I think the idea of a benevolent dictator is inherently ironic in Ran. The order can only be uphed as long as the autocrat is alive. He chooses to split up his land because he foresees his own inevitable death. No matter how ordered the world is he created, he would eventually have to pass away and make way for chaos. His sons and their cohorts only repeat the conquest of the great dictator. I read this as a criticism of the very concept of centralized power. Since it cannot be permanent, it will always lead to perpetual suffering. Also, none of the "heroes" have great destinies in Ran. Saburo and Taro get shot on horseback without seeing their adversary, and Jiro is overall portrayed as a weak character who opens himself up to manipulation at every corner and sends hundreds of men into their doom, not out of a sense of honor, but sheer overconfidence. Hidetora finds himself betrayed by two of his sons and dies of grief when the third passes away in his arms. Half of the film he is not even lucid, and pathetically wanders though barren fields and shattered castles accompanied by only a fool. Tsurumaru is not "us" any more than the other warlords. His father was the lord of a keep who lost against Hidetora. Just because we didn't see his loss does not mean that it was any different from the defeat of Saburo.

[@ahkhan5092]

Kurusawa is the greatest master of all time in the cinematic art...

[@qwj68boots]

I think he's better than John Ford, whom he admired a great deal. Kurosawa and Renoir captured the human spirit better than most if not all. Satyajit Ray too!

[@garrison6863]

One of Kurosawa's best films, and one of the finest adaptations of Shakespeare ever. Kurosawa had a cinematic imagination that created some of the greatest film imagery in history.

[@JohnFix]

Saw this film in a theater when it was first released, going to see it on the big screen again tonight. Hooray for Alamo Drafthouse for providing a screen for classic films like Ran.

[@waivedwench]

1:39: Son: "Father, there are ways to break three arrows." Father: "Yeah, but you had to work at it, didn't you?"

[@nirvanaispus]

Having see roughly 10,000 films in my lifetime I can easily say that Ran in my fav of all time. The characters are great. I cannot think of a more evil character created for film as was with Lady Kaede for Ran other than Hank Quinlan (Orson Wells) in Touch of Evil. Its really the evil characters that keep a film going unless its a film that does not require a villain. Another thing that is truly impressive to me about Ran is that Kurosawa was 3/4's blind when he made it. So how is it that those battle scenes were shot is a mystery? Regardless, Kurosawa to me is the greatest filmmaker of all time and Hollywood could certainly use a filmmaker like him now with all these duds.

[@kissmyasthma3155]

I heard that he painstakingly drew/painted the scenes from his movies frame by frame before production even began. Later he would show them to his cinematographer so he can get a better idea of what he's doing.

[@nirvanaispus]

+KissMyAsthma - Yes absolutely 100% true. And you can watch the Siskel and Ebert review to confirm this. You can also purchase the screenplay to Ran from Amazon which has several hundred of Kurosawa's illustrations. But the thing that is so extraordinarily mind numbing and is so staggering to me is that Kurosawa was 3/4's blind to make the film. How on earth could he have possibly filmed it regardless if he could have communicated how he wanted it filmed? What a great use of color, action in which so many filmmakers such as Zhang Yimou have used such as the masterpiece Hero and its many rip offs. Now if you want to see only a few of the many illustrations, here's a few... zOQiwtD1fxw

[@ramonalejandrosuare]

+nirvanaispus The sad thing is that Lady Kaede was no more evil than any one of the main characters in Ran outside of Saburo, especially if you consider her backstory. Her family was butchered by Hidetora and she was married off to one his sons, being forced to live in one of his castles as a spoil on conquest. Kaede's ruthless plan for avenging this crime is just another one of selfish human acts committed by various characters in the story which contributed to the endless cycle of violence in Ran. Actually, you could probably argue that it was Hidetora who was the main villain of the film, and that Ran was the story of him receiving his just desserts for all of the violence, death and pain he inflicted during an amoral lifetime of acquiring power.

[@nirvanaispus]

+Ramon Suarez Sorry. I don't buy that for a trillion years. Because what you are saying is that if someone were to murder your entire family that its perfectly OK for you to hunt down who did it and plot to murder them and then knowingly have who did it be murdered by someone else so you can witness their glorious death be violent and be creepingly happy about it and thus your end will come swiftly without any type of pain whatsoever thus making you a martyr of some type. And along the way, everything, naturally, falls into your lap, without any disruptions, so you have that awesome power to squeeze the life out of everybody that has done your loved ones wrong. Also in the middle, when the murderers are confronted, you get to laugh at them hideously and devilishly as you twist and turn that cork screw deeper and deeper in. Now that's evil. But it makes Kaede even more evil, to be hated all the more and thus more likable, because Hidetora's sons didn't do one damned thing that was wrong. It was daddy dear. Vengeance. Try and pull that off in today's society and see how far you get unless you want to pull off a suicide by cop routine? But then again the hand-me-down routine has been done oh so well by christians as they think its perfectly OK, and so do jews, because they have that good ole bible with the wonderful old testament and god's laws to brood upon.

[@ramonalejandrosuare]

nirvanaispus I am not saying what Lady Kaede did was right at all. My point is that, at worst, she is no more of a villain than Hidetora or his sons, save for Saburo. All of them ruthlessly pursued goals which led to the deaths of thousands and plunged the land in violence and chaos for their own selfish reasons. Did Kaede become a vengeful sociopath who sadistically lived to see the people who murdered her family punished? Yes. Does that make her worse than a despot like Hidetora, who by today's standards would be a war criminal? No. In fact, you could argue, like Saburo did in the beginning, that her cruelty was a rational reaction to chaotic and merciless world Hidetora created through his ruthless bloodshed: *Hidetora: What madness have I spoken? Wherein lies my senility? Saburo: I'll tell you. What kind of world do we live in? One barren of loyalty and feeling. Hidetora: I'm aware of that. Saburoi: So you should be! You spilled an ocean of blood. You showed no mercy, no pity. We too are children of this age... weaned on strife and chaos. We are your sons, yet you count on our fidelity. In my eyes, that makes you a fool. A senile old fool!* Like Saburo, I believe Hidetora is responsible for the chaos which ultimately destroyed his family and brought strife upon the land by creating a world of treachery and hatred that would ensure a cycle of violence and bloodshed would continue in the wake of his abdication. In this view Kaede's own evil choices were par for the course, a lesson she learned from her father in law when he brought war to her people and slaughtered her kin.

[@deadby15]

"No matter how bad things may seem, they can always get worse." This cracked me up cuz it's so unceremoniously true.

[@charlesyun7803]

Akira Kurosawa’s rage and frustration built up from all these years helped fuel the fire of chaos that happens in Ran. His other period epic,Seven Samurai, had bloodshed, but it was taken in a more heroic tone, barely hinting at nihilism at the end. Even his nihilist film Yojimbo was taken in a comedic view. Ran had all of the bloodshed, none of the comedy, and made its complete self destruction underline its primary point of nothingness. Ran used up all of Akira Kurosawa’s red eyes, where his other films post-Ran subpar in quality. At least Kurosawa made one last classic at the twilight of his film career. Most aging directors would give up their left nut just to make one more classic at the end of their film career.

[@qwj68boots]

and think, it took 10 Bloody years to get the financing!!! TEN.

[@yutethebeaute]

I need to add just one more thing... Please, please, please watch this film in cinema or on a very big and wide screen.

[@qwj68boots]

I've just finished an encore presentation that screened a 35 mm print at NYC's MoMA. The sad thing these days are the addicted mobile phone carriers who tear down the suspension of disbelief. So angered am I over this, my screenings are truly numbered from seeing films with an audience. I'd rather stay home at this point. The selfishness of people never ends.

[@0987nunes]

this film works on so many levels that a whole essay would be necessary to analyze all of them: power, violence, servitude, treason, remorse, blindness, sheer ambition and opportunism. All wrapped-up on stunning visuals. The characters are developed to such an extent that we feel we know them. As any great tragedy, when resolution and redemption are so close, all falls apart: "I have tales to tell, forgiveness to ask"...and boom!

[@steveschroth8847]

I miss these. Wish the times still did them.

[@Engelados]

Fun fact: In feudal Japan all the soldiers had a little flag with their colors behind their back so the generals could figure out who is who (and who is winning.) Kurosawa was becoming blind. Maybe that's why RAN was so "colorful" *wink* Kurosawa found a way to film. "till the end" just like his Samurais. Now you understand the drama and the feeling of "desertion and loss" throughout the film. Being betrayed by what he held most deer "his vision" This is a masterpiece. I bow to Akira Kurosawa

[@qwj68boots]

Just think, if he'd of gotten the financing prior to the 10 years it took, he'd of been able to see! 😉

[@jinngapling6349]

A truly splendid piece of moviemaking. From the decision to adapt the original work to nailing the bleak message of a diseased humanity, the movie makes you wish you could watch it in full glory in a movie theatre ...

[@FireEyedMaidOfWar]

Akira Kurosawa’s Ran is without a doubt one of the best tragedies made in history so far and may even rival the ancient Greek plays; plus Kurosawa did actually fix the tragic flaw in Shakespeare’s King Lear, as his Lear does cast away his Cordelia son due to a very creditable misunderstanding; and he is haunted by his past for the treacheries and cruelties he did commit there and his house is destroyed due to them as Kurosawa’s Edmund Lady does plot revenge very cunningly.

[@erikgruber9736]

The last scene is the bleakest scene ever

[@SAVUFILMS]

You know what i just realized. They made a war movie without anybody fighting with swords

[@healingmomentum]

So so great.

[@TheDillidl]

To be perfectly honest, it did have some, to me at least, unneccesary lengths; it could all have been told more stringent, yet it sometimes seemed to drag on without actually developing the story and characters. Still, there were some wonderfully bleak scenes, indeed and colour was used very well throughout, really. And Lady Kaede...wow. Mieko Haradas performance was perhaps the most striking out of all the characters and my personal favourite. Her character is manipulative, angry and repulsive in her clear ambition to bring doom to all around her; marvelous. Oh, and her death scene is perfect: Clear cut, short perhaps, but all the more savage and true.

[@findmestudios]

there's a theatre near silver spring that shows old movies and art movies and stuff and I saw this there on my birthday. It was so dope seeing it on the big screen. I love this movie even tho it's depressing as hell lol. Also, it could be just the quality of the print, but the print had a warmer color tone than the blu ray and stuff.

[@quicksite]

This is the kind of KZbin programming from the NYT that makes them relevant, at a time when they have lost most of their former relevance. Nice job A.O. Scott.

[@joehughey3213]

a great film

[@hiemthong6612]

Post war Japan, growing as a young man, yes I can see how Kurosawa would appreciate the chaos and violence, the suffering of the governor and the governed, from within and without which often emanate from a feudal system of royal/military dictators presiding over subjects/slaves...What would Kurosawa make of the success of the various representative democracies over the internal chaos and ruins of the Communist Block at the end of the 20th Century, in contrast to the outrageously pessimistic motif at the end...just an all around masterpiece of motion picture craft.

[@AlonsoRules]

Ran is cinema at its absolute best

[@sourandbitter3062]

I should have known... yet, I wasn't ready for this movie.

[@rexremedy1733]

I like the colours and stylish armour.

[@dynjarren7523]

I heard that Kurosawa was practically legally blind when he directed Ran and it’s based on King Lear. True or not, it’s a stunning film!

[@qwj68boots]

Both are facts.

[@michaelhall2709]

@@qwj68bootsWell, sort of. RAN is “based on King Lear” the same way APOCALYPSE NOW is based on “Heart of Darkness” - mostly in terms of theme and structure, as opposed to character and plot. At best, they’re very loose adaptations that don’t even acknowledge the source material in their credits.

[@SpottyDorsord]

A real fucken movie.

[@12012channel]

I would not say that his films weren't received as well as in Japan when they were released in general because most of Japan did appreciate his works.However there were some criticisms such as catering to a western audience,depiction of females as cunning and incapable of any real kindness,fascist propaganda, and other criticisms as well.

[@qwj68boots]

I read somewhere a long time ago almost as a throwaway that he wasn't allowed to make any films about WWII himself post WWII. His participation with Tora! Tora! Tora! does not count as it was not an entire film he would have directed. That was a disaster for him anyway.

[@jamescolpas]

I recommend kagemusha a brilliant film that deals with and understands devotion

[@dornravlin]

thats what you think. this movies amazing

[@ElArlequin]

Since the Message Board of IMDB has been closed for years... I would love to hear your interpretations of that FINAL scene. :)

[@squamish4244]

I have heard that Kurosawa's films weren't received as well in Japan initially, including Ran...was there a cultural barrier? Certainly the Sengoku period has been extensively depicted in Japanese popular culture.

[@amphitheatre]

Whoa, almost gave the BIGGGEST lady kaede spoiler possible. I like AOS guys, but be wary of spoilers in this critics picks.

[@crrrrg]

Why give away the ending in the review?!?

[@akurosawa]

Close contact with director Akira Kurosawa! The camera time slipped in July 1984 at the shooting site of the movie "Ran". You can meet a master who gives gentle and polite acting guidance to actors who do not scold other than the assistant director. While attending Kwansei Gakuin University, he collaborated with a video cameraman and director as a filming assistant and audio manager at the production site of "Ran". It was an exclusive independent production with permission from Director Kurosawa. Instead of having to pay the accommodation fee, the making of random production right was granted to the Herald movie at that time, and it is out in the world

[@qwj68boots]

I'm puzzled by this declaration. What? I'm not understanding the message.

[@dubbedcrazy]

Masterpiece1

[@LanDred1]

super

[@TheBunnyodeath]

King Leer in Japan

[@eseetv9341]

I'm shocked Scott could say he liked a movie.

[@mxyzptlk...]

Kurosawa is the greatest.

[@cabs85]

@Terrapinfan2007 go and watch some cameron diaz movie

[@jennifers6435]

Go Bernie!!!

[@MK384]

Tsurumaru is humanity.

[@bobsbigboy_]

Renaissance Japan*

[@rodrigomarcondes5857]

"Akiri Kurosawa"

[@aidankitchencraftvlogs4791]

Hoooooo

[@oknotyet9630]

Children of War

[@bigkahunaburger1092]

I feel like today's Kurosawa is Villenueve and I need to see this guys movies

[@NemEsisTHEoPeration]

It would probably be boring to you because you would have to use your brain actively to understand it.

[@gregoryfujita8265]

As bad a decade the 80s were for films...this gem shines as one of the best films ever....Kurosawa stands as one of the film gods.....

[@kinghirasawa10]

Reminds me of Kwaidan kzbin.info/www/bejne/d3Oad4Zpjdt2i5o

[@cawabunga360]

fuck, alot of spoilers, shit!!!